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Three athletes dead in apparent murder-suicide in upstate New York

Police believe a young man distraught over a breakup went to his former girlfriend’s house and killed her, along with another man originally from British Columbia, before killing himself.

Matthew Hutchison, 24, was originally from B.C., and Kelsey Annese, 21, was senior guard with the State University of New York Geneseo’s basketball team. (KEITH WALTERS/SUNY / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS)

By Yanan WangThe Washington Post

Tues., Jan. 19, 2016

Kelsey Annese spent the last Saturday night of her life on the basketball court. The 21-year-old senior guard helped the State University of New York Geneseo’s basketball team win a game against Buffalo State, completing a three-point play that allowed them to maintain a double-digit lead.

On the court, Annese was a “grinder,” a talented player with an unmatched work ethic. Her jersey sported the number 32, the same one that her dad wore when he played basketball at the school.

She lived with her teammates in an off-campus house, where she was found dead Sunday morning along with Colin Kingston, 24, and Matthew Hutchison, also 24.

Authorities told reporters on Monday that the killings were prompted by a romantic rift.

Kingston and Annese had dated for three years, according to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, and had recently broken up. Police said Kingston arrived at the house between 5:30 and 6:20 a.m. with a “large knife,” stabbing Annese and Hutchison several times in the former’s bedroom while four other people remained in the house.

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He then called his father to say that he had harmed Annese and threatened to kill himself. By the time police arrived, all three were already dead.

The investigation found no evidence of a forced entry.

“Mr. Kingston was distraught over the breakup, which led to the events of yesterday,” Geneseo police spokesman Jeffrey Szczesniak said at a news conference Monday.

Geneseo is a village in the Finger Lakes regions of New York, about 40 kilometres southwest of Buffalo.

Hutchison was a senior defenseman on SUNY Geneseo’s hockey team. Originally from from North Vancouver, Canada, he started playing the sport when he was nine years old and wore the number 23 in honour of Michael Jordan. He also volunteered as a firefighter and emergency medical technician (EMT) for the Geneseo Fire Department, according to his page on the school athletics website.

Kingston, a former Geneseo student, was also an athlete. He played for the Geneseo High School basketball team, the Democrat and Chronicle reported. But his name was better recognized for belonging to a family that has had a presence in the town since the 19th century.

His grandfather, Walter Kingston, once served as town supervisor and chairman of the Livingston County Board of Supervisors.

“Everybody has a connection to the family,” Chanler told the Democrat and Chronicle.

Szczesniak said Kingston “had made some suicidal comments to several people but no actual threats to harm Ms. Annese or anybody else.” It is unclear whether Kingston and Hutchison had ever met, the Democrat and Chronicle reported.

The tragedy occurred at the start of a new semester for SUNY Geneseo, where many students are just returning to campus. While classes will continue as planned, the men’s and women’s basketball games originally scheduled for Tuesday have been postponed.

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